In landscaping and establishing a new lawn in areas, such as around newly constructed residential or commercial buildings, it is a normal practice, after initial bulldozer clearing of the trees on the land, to plow, level, scarify, rake and pulverize the soil, and to remove trash, rocks and other debris from the area before seeding. Thereafter, the landscaped ground is fertilized, seeded and smoothed. In the past, it has been necessary to use multiple pieces of equipment, or attachments, which are either self-propelled or must be connected to and disconnected from a prime mover, such as a tractor, in performing at least certain of the sequential operations mentioned above. For example, after initial bulldozer operations, it is the practice to backfill relatively large depressions left by the bulldozer where trees have been removed, to plow the ground to a desired depth to break up the soil, to level, rake and scarify the soil, and to pulverize large clods of soil to maintain a uniform texture to the soil. Prior to seeding, trash and debris must be collected and removed from the area to be seeded, generally necessitating the use of a front end loader to remove the same.
Attempts have been made to provide apparatus which perform combined functions similar to certain of the abovementioned landscaping and seeding operations. Very early U.S. Pat. No. 206,120 discloses a road grader attachment having earth breaking, leveling and packing components, while U.S. Pat. No. 629,313 discloses an attachment having combined harrow, pulverizer and crusher components. U.S. Pat. No. 2,839,851 discloses a scarifier and scraper with backfill attachment, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,448,814 discloses a grader bucket construction having plow, scarifier, scraper and roller crusher, with backfill capabilities. U.S. Pat. No. 3,083,652 discloses an earth conditioning and seeding trailer for attachment to a prime mover, while more recent U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,083 discloses a tillage apparatus having detachable plow, scarifier, seeder, and roller attachments. U.S. Pat. No. 3,083,652 discloses an earth conditioning and seeding trailer, while U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,655 discloses a self-propelled lawn conditioning vehicle for smoothing, fertilizing and seeding a lawn. U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,276 discloses a scarifier or plow apparatus capable of deep soil penetration and smoothing operation, and employing a scoop for breaking up the soil prior to compaction.
Although the above-mentioned apparatus provide combinations of components to perform multiple operations in a land grading, or in a seeding operation, it is not believed that any of the apparatus disclosed can perform all of the operations necessary for landscaping, fertilizing and seeding of a lawn area, as with the apparatus of the present invention. In addition, many of the apparatus disclosed in the above-mentioned patents are quite bulky and difficult to handle, obviously limiting their use to relatively large open areas, and not suitable for narrow, close areas around buildings and between concrete driveways, trees, and the like.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a multi-purpose lawn landscaping and seeding device for attachment to and operation from a prime mover, such as a garden tractor, which is of compact, relatively lightweight construction, and which can be utilized to perform, with a single piece of equipment, all of the necessary functions for normal landscaping and seeding of a lawn.
It is another object to provide an apparatus of the type described which may be easily transported to a landscaping site and readily manipulated in confined or small areas of the site to perform all the necessary operations required.
It is a more specific object to provide a multi-purpose lawn landscaping and seeding device which permits plowing, scarifying, raking, fertilizing, seeding and pulverizing and which further may be utilized for scraping, leveling and backfilling of the ground, as well as for removal of trash, rocks and other debris from the site.